David Dobkin Signs With WME

BREAKING: In a move that was expected, writer/director David Dobkin has moved from CAA to WME, rejoining his longtime agent Dan Aloni. The Wedding Crashers helmer is right in the midst of casting Arthur & Lancelot, his rendering of the Knights of the Roundtable tale that he sold in a spec deal north of $2 million. Dobkin and Warner Bros have overcome obstacles–an original $130 million budget prompted the studio to let Dobkin shop it elsewhere, and Kit Harington and Joel Kinnaman came and went, as did another incarnation with Colin Farrell. The studio and Dobkin found common ground on budget, and Warner Bros is in talks with Gary Oldman to play Merlin. There have been rumblings of thesps like Tom Hardy, but that depends on his Fury Road schedule. Dobkin is producing through his Big Kid Pictures banner.

As a writer/producer, Dobkin recently wrapped photography on RIPD for Universal, starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, and produced the Bryan Singer-directed Jack The Giant Killer for New Line, starring Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, and Bill Nighy. He’s developing The Judge as a directing vehicle, with Robert Downey Jr. attached to star, and is producing the reboot of Vacation for New Line.

Dobkin is one of the last of Aloni’s tenured clients to jump ship, and he was with the agent for 15 years. Among the clients that joined Aloni at WME are Chris Nolan, Mike Myers, Jay Roach, David Goyer, Tom Shadyac, Michel Gondry, Raja Gosnell, Mandeville Films, Jonathan Mostow, Dean Parisot, Neal Moritz, Andy Fleming and David and Ian Purchase. Aloni might not be the easiest guy in the world to get along with, but he certainly has bolstered WME’s filmmaker ranks at the expense of rival CAA, which had him escorted out of the building.